Bloody Mess!!!

Okay, I know that I told you I would write about the chicken coop today, but we are still lacking a bit of interior work and I just HAVE to tell you about last night!!

We had gotten a lot of rain over the past couple of days.  It has rained and rained and RAINED!!!  I know that we need it, but it has frustrated me because I want to be outside sooooo bad!!

Anyways, last night we went out to get in the car and go pick the older girls up from church and guess what we saw????  Red stuff everywhere!!!

At first we thought it was a SERIOUS oil leak from one of the cars.  We checked the oil, drove the cars a bit and they were fine.  Then the detective work began!  DD#2 was the first to point out that it could not be oil because it was not separated from the water (being that water and oil don't mix!!).  Duhhhh....I don't know why I did not think of that one!

Then (now you must picture all six of us outside with flashlights looking all over for the source of the "red!!"  We were a sight!) we looked around the general vicinity and found more red puddles!!  These were on the other side of the house, so that ruled out anything leaking from the cars.

Now we began to wonder....just what is under the house!  Could it be a body??  Oh yes, we had a serious mystery!!

DD#1 was the first to introduce the idea that maybe the ground had a really high iron content and the excessive rain brought it to the surface.  I dismissed her idea as I was still thinking there was a buried body somewhere and we were all in mortal danger!!

Well, after taking samples which we planned on having tested (because we just knew there was either a crime committed, or we were getting acid rain!!), Farmer Willie had the brilliant idea to call the previous owners and ask them about it!!

Lo and behold, they had the answer for us!!  Several years ago they had dairy dirt brought in and dumped to make the front "yard" area.  Dairy dirt is apparently very high in iron and can cause a rain runoff to take on a reddish tint.  Mystery solved!!

After the drama of the bloody mess, we came inside and saw a news article about someone living under the house of this lady!  That did NOTHING to help my overactive imagination!!!!!  :)  One of these days I will get up the nerve to go under there and check it out!!  Now though, I am content to know that the cat lives under the house and is watching things for me!!

More About The Move

Ahh.....I finally figured out that my problem with pictures has to do with my browser, so I was able to add a picture to yesterdays post and some for today!  Hooray!!

Our move ended up being a bit on the crazy side.  One issue came up after another and they kept moving our closing date further back.  We were about to hit a certain date where we would have to pay additional money to keep our interest rate lock and we had decided that we were not going to do that.  Mostly because the mortgage company we worked with was not so great and Farmer Willie said there was no way he would give them any more money!

We knew that the Lord wanted us to move into this house, so we had to just keep praying that He would work it out. Then, on the day before we would lose the lock, they called and said to come in and close!  Good thing we had been packing all along!!

So we finally closed and that afternoon moved everything to the new house.  DD#2, #3 and I arrived before everyone else and boy am I glad we did!  The house was a mess! There was trash and stuff everywhere!!  It has taken us all of two weeks, but I think we finally have cleared out most of their stuff and are beginning to work on ours.

Final packing push!!

Sorting through the things that were left at the new house along with drying out brown material for the compost pile!

I told you yesterday about all of the animals that have decided this must be their home, now let me tell you about the people!

First day we were here, even before our stuff arrived, some of the neighbors stopped by to meet us and bring us a yummy snack!  Next day more neighbors!  I have been shocked at the number of people that have come by, especially since we don't live close to that many people.  They have all been very friendly and readily willing to help!

So let me share with you some of my observations thus far....

1. I depend on Internet wayyyyy more than I thought!  I was lost for two weeks without my recipes and being able to check the weather and news online!!
2. It is more fun to exercise/walk when you can hike through the woods!
3. Most of us go through at least two outfits a day out here.  With all of the work we are doing outside, we are a dirty, dirty bunch!!    
4. Everyone LOVES the little Baptist church down the street!  Even people that don't go there talk about what a great church it is.  I think we will try it out on Sunday to see what the buzz is about!  The older girls are going to visit their youth group tomorrow :)
5. I never knew I could work soooo hard!!  But boy howdy am I sore!
6. It is difficult to get a compost pile working when it is so cold outside!
7. You CAN chainsaw a huge hot tub and fit it into two loads in the minivan!!  Who knew??!!
8. Well water is yummy!
9. It is nice to wake up early each day because you are so excited about the day.
10. It is fun to go on walks around our property and find new things that you did not know were there!!

Thing that I have enjoyed the most is the slower pace and shift of focus.  It is crazy to say we have a slower pace being that we are working like crazy, but we are able to focus on one task and follow it through and there is a lot of satisfaction in that!!

Today we finish up the hen house!!  Can't wait to show you that tomorrow!!!

Finally Moved In!!

I'm Back!!!!!

I am so sorry about the huge gap in my postings!!  Once we got all moved, it took two weeks to get our Internet turned on!    Anyways, I am here now :)

Where to start???!!!!

We have been here a little over a week and boy howdy is it an adjustment!  I have learned several lessons right out of the gate!!

• The biggest thing is that there is NO way to keep it clean.  With our 12 feet going in and out all of the time, the breeze way stays muddy, dirty, leafy, etc.  all of the time.  To help, I have put down a couple of runners and a rug, along with some boxes under the seating to catch shoes. 

• Next lesson, there are a ton of animals running around here and they ALL want in my house!!  In particular, there is a dog named Diesel and a cat named Percy that wait at the doors for us to come out so they can try and sneak in!!
• Dog poo!!!  No matter how many times we clean up the yard, someone tracks in dog poo!  YUCK!
• If you ever want to cure a sleep problem, work on a farm!!  I have never slept better!  We are all so tuckered out at night that we just crash and crash early.  Come 8pm, we are all sound asleep. 
• We are capable of much more than we thought we were!  From cutting down trees to hauling trash and building chicken coops.  We have learned how to do so much over the past two weeks!!

I am having trouble adding pictures through Blogger today, so I will add more tomorrow!!  See ya then!

Moved In!!

Just a quick note to let you know that we have FINALLY moved in and have internet!!  We went without it for 2 weeks, but we are now up and running!

I hope to begin posting again on Monday and I can't wait to share the adventure with you!

Moving Week

Howdy all!!

Since it is moving week, I am going to take a short break from blogging so that I can get everything done!!  I will blog short posts just to keep you updated with the process, but otherwise I will be back next Monday!

See ya then!

Guest Post Movie Review - Rise of the Guardians

***Farm Hunting Update - Wow!  Yesterday was sooo crazy!  I told you how AcCOWntant's dental crown broke and he had to get it fixed on Thursday, well, yesterday at lunch the temporary crown broke.  So...he headed back to the dentist's office and they put on another temporary crown.  When he finally got back to work he took a bite of a soft sugar cookie and it broke again!!!  :)

At that point we just had to laugh!!

The mortgage company keeps calling us asking us how they should do certain things.  How in the world would we know??!!  Crazy day!

Then to top it all off, last night DD's 3 and 4 snuggled with me in bed as we all fell asleep.  I awoke to #4 throwing up all over #3!  We had the biggest mess I had ever seen!  Honestly, we all ended up covered in it...YUCK!!  I should have grabbed my camera to document that one!!!  :)

And again, we just had to laugh!!

So we are still waiting to hear from the appraisal and the mortgage company is still trying to obtain a piece of paper that should be extremely simple to get.  But...my God is still in control!!***

Guest Post Movie Review - Rise of the Guardians

We have a guest post today!! My oldest daughter is heading off to college next year to study her passions of math and science. 

But she is also a brilliant writer and avid movie watcher so here is what she thought about Rise of the Guardians....

Rise of the Guardians

Rise of the Guardians is an enjoyable story with a creative perspective on classic characters. It has many beautiful messages and touching moments. It teaches about self-sacrifice, laying your life down for others, and overcoming fears; and granted everyone in our family a few laughs.

The villain, his nightmare horse minions, and some of the scenes could be frightening for children. Also, religious overtones are blended with mythical characters (Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc.). These religious aspects include references to listening to the Man in the Moon when he speaks, the Man on the Moon giving Jack Frost his magical abilities and bringing him back to life, and the mythical characters watching over the children of the world. Though the mythical creatures guard the children of the world, they can only do so if the children believe, because, if they stop, the they will lose their strength.

These are the only issues that our family found with the movie. Despite these,  and with a little clarification for the younger set, our whole family found “Rise of the Guardians” to be an enjoyable and appropriate family movie with deeper lessons as well.

Plugged In Movie Reviews offers more in-depth reviews at pluggedin.com, as does Dove Reviews at dove.org.

One of THOSE Days!!

Ever have one of THOSE days??  Yes?  Me too!  In fact, I had one on Tuesday :)

You know how the day went........

I woke up already feeling a bit off kilter.  Less than two hours into the day we had spent $200 to have a garage door fixed that we did not even know would need fixed. 

It seemed to get better, but then halfway through the day Farmer Willie calls to inform me that as he was eating lunch, a sandwich no less, a crown on a tooth cracked in half!  So he was heading to the dentist that afternoon.

Dentist says we need to fork over $300 to get it fixed!

Then realtor calls, while hubby is in the dental chair, and says the mortgage company forgot to order the appraisal!  Now, they had told our agent on Tuesday of last week that it was all taken care of and they told us the same thing last Wednesday!  FRUSTRATING!!

Then the mortgage company sends us an email saying that they can't get our VA certificate of eligibility and we need to call the VA.  Of course we got the email at 5pm, when they closed!!

At this point I was done and ready to just crawl into my bed and try to pretend the day was a dream! 

But then I thought, if I let my bad day end this way, where is His glory?  How am I showing faith and obedience by crawling into bed and pretending that the day did not happen?

So....I tried to focus on the blessings that became more apparent because of the trials! 

Here is how I saw God during that yucky day!!

• We had the money to get the garage door fixed.  We might have had to give up a couple of fun things we had planned, but thank the Lord we were ABLE to have it fixed.
• We found a nice and fair priced man to fix it for us and he was able to fix it early in the day.
• AcCOWntant actually has a job to go to and eat his lunch at, even if that lunch broke his crown.
• AcCOWntant had food to eat for lunch.
• We have good dental insurance, so instead of paying $1000, we only had to pay $300. 
• Again, we had the money to pay for the dental work.  May have had to give up a couple more fun things we had planned, but my hubby has his tooth fixed and is not in any pain.
• Though they told us that the appraisal could take up to two weeks after it was ordered, our appraisal officer called later that evening and did the appraisal yesterday.
• We are still working on helping the mortgage company get the certificate.  We can't get it ourselves because the VA requires the lender to do it, but we are staying in touch with them to make sure it gets done.  But we are THANKFUL for the VA loan program that gives veterans help in purchasing homes.

So in the end, many of the issues were solved before I even went to bed that night!  The ones that were not....well, I will remember that even though I don't really have a lot of faith in our lender at this moment, I do have faith in the Lord and He is the one I look to!!